Nearing The Wire

We’re at the sixteenth pole nearing the wire day by day. With graduation coming up this Saturday it's amazing looking back and thinking how fast the two years on the course have flown by. Last week we turned in our final project, our business plans which have been on all our minds for the past several months. As probably expected I did mine on a training stable based at Santa Anita Park. The assignment was a lot of work but I enjoyed it thoroughly because I learned so much from it. Now I just have to give my sales pitch to a panel of 4 judges on Wednesday. It's like going on Dragon's Den or Shark Tank, and I'm looking forward to it.

The last three months on the course have been focused on entrepreneurship and it's been great learning all the various aspects that go in to creating a successful business. It really has been fun learning all about entrepreneurship and business, which was an area of knowledge I was lacking before the course. Last week we had a great seminar in Sligo from Epona Biotech on innovation and branding.

It's very hard to believe but today was our last industry visit and it was excellent. We went to Coolcullen to visit Jim Bolger. It was a pleasure to see his training operation. We had the opportunity to sit down with him afterwards and have a chat as well. It was a great day and a fantastic visit.

The two years are almost over and then it's time for a new beginning back out in the "real world". The course has been the experience of a lifetime. I will forever be grateful to the generosity of His Highness Sheik Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum for creating this wonderful program that I have been so fortunate to be a part of.